Day at the Museum of Science and History

Emily came up to us one day and decided she wanted to go to the museum after watching an episode of Peppa Pig.  She and Avery have been before with Nonna and Alyssa and she wanted to go back to see the dinosaurs.  So on a free weekend we went to the Museum of Natural Science and History.  The last time I was there I was in grammar school and was expecting it to be as big as I remembered but to my surprise it was rather small.

When we arrived we went to the rock collection and reptile exhibit.  I was very happy to see the girls being open minded and putting aside their fears.  Nonna said they wouldn't dare go near the reptile exhibit when she took them but this time they even tried touching the different textures.

After skipping the gun ammo exhibit we came across the dinosaur exhibit which was all of two skeletons on display.  Apparently the museum is working on their dinosaur exhibit but at least we have something to look forward to next time we visit.

We got around to the place where they keep the ships and explain how Corpus Christi was discovered and founded.  Emily thought the ship was the Jolly Roger, which is Captain Hook's ship on the show Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I'm glad she could relate somewhat.

I showed her what the first people to reach our coast looked like and she took one look at the man and said, "It's Jesus!"  Not quite, but I can see the resemblance.

I couldn't avoid the children's section because it is right in the center of the museum.  I had planned on leaving that for last, but we got to be hands on with all the neat puzzles.

I managed to get them away for a little bit to take them on a tour of the rest of the museum.  We learned about our local native Indians, the Karankawa Indians.  We also saw what our local cowboys used to ranch in our area.  My favorite part of the whole museum are the replica items from the early 1900's, which Emily and Avery thought was a big dollhouse.  It was hard to get them not to try and go behind the glass.

Before the museum closed we went back to the children's place and played our hearts out.  It was nice to have the place to ourselves.

Where to go after a great time at the museum, the park , of course.  We always have fun at the park!

Flying Kites at the Beach

Going to the Movies

I have always wanted to take the girls to the movie theater to watch a children's movie like most families do with their kids around the country.  Emily has always had a pet peeve about noise.  Loud noises scare her and once she is frightened she is frantic.  I have been told by her teachers that when the classroom gets to loud she will cover her ears and run towards them shouting, "It's too loud!"  Any loud appliances send her running to her room.  Now that she is 4 1/2 years old we thought it might be time to venture out to the theater to try our hand at a new pastime. 

Disney came out with a new movie called "Frozen" that was getting tons of great reviews, so we thought that would be the perfect movie to take Emily and Avery to watch.  Nonna met us there and we bought the girls some snacks.  All was well until the previews came on and the overwhelming sound made Emily automatically place her hands over her ears.  She shot up out of her seat and said, "Let's go mom!"  I thought maybe taking her out to the lobby to get her a candy of her choice would help calm her down.  After 10 minutes of walking around it took me another 5 minutes to get from the door of our theater to the beginning of the seat aisle.  I held her in my arms watching the first 10 minutes of the movie and then slowly made it back to our seats. Emily sat in my lap with her hands over her ears and I thought it was all going great until a tense part in the movie where the serious music starts scared her and she would not let me talk any sense into her.  Emily was ready to leave and she wouldn't take no for an answer.

I left Avery with Nonna to watch the rest of the movie and went to the park with Emily.  It was horrible.  Avery on the other hand loved her first time at the movie theater and is excited to go again.  She laughed at the funny parts and enjoyed the whole experience.  I was so proud of her!

We will try again with Emily in the next couple of months.  Next time we will be taking earphones to muffle out the loud sounds.  Hopefully she will then enjoy herself and the movie experience.

Christmas 2013

Christmas time this year has been exciting and challenging.  This is the first year that both girls understand who Santa Claus is and what he does and how he relates to Jesus' birthday.  It is also the first time they understand that Santa knows when you are good or bad and can have an effect on the amount of presents you receive at Christmas.  The Elf on the Shelf landed on our doorstep right after Thanksgiving and I had a difficult time reading the elf's story because the girls were too excited to sit and listen so I had to give them a quick short version.  Emily named the elf "Mia and the Castle", which is it's full name.  I tried to call the elf Mia and she corrected me saying, "No mom, it's Mia and the Castle."  The way it works is the elf comes from the North Pole to watch over the children.  Every night the elf magically returns back to the North Pole to report to Santa whether the girls were good or bad.  The girls are not supposed to touch the elf because he could lose his magic, but Avery wasn't buying it and touched him whenever she wanted, constantly saying, "See mom, he don't lose his magic."  What do I know, right?  This year is also the first year that Emily "wrote" Santa a letter telling him what she and Avery wanted for Christmas.  On her list was: roller skates, a kitchen, and a doll house.

Santa emailed daddy a video letter and the girls watched as he told them both were on the Nice list.  They were very excited and every time they didn't do as I asked I would tell them Santa would take them off the nice list and place them on the bad list.  They didn't believe me because Santa had already told them they were on the nice list.  Maybe Santa will wait a little longer to place them on any list in the future.

Emily and Avery helped make Jesus' birthday cake as well as the cookies for Santa.  I hope we will keep this new tradition every year.  We went to Ama and Apa's house for Christmas Eve and went to Christmas mass with the family.  They loved all the gifts they received, especially the tricycles.  Apa and Ama also gave the girls kites which will be fun to fly come spring time.  On Christmas Day the girls woke up pretty cranky until they remembered Santa brought their gifts over night.  Emily was really nervous on the days leading up to Christmas because we don't have a chimney.  She was afraid Santa wouldn't be able to get into the house.  I showed both girls the plate of cookies that we left out for Santa so they could see the evidence that he had a snack but they didn't care, they were too busy wowing over their gifts. They did get their kitchen as asked but were very aware that some of their listed items were not there, particularly the doll house.  After opening gifts we went over to Nonna and Papa's house and received many more gifts including Emily's favorite gift from Uncle Garrett, a drum set.  We were very blessed this Christmas and thank God for all that we have.  Happy Birthday Jesus!